This invention relates primarily to a syringe and needle cover combination that can more safely and conveniently be combined with a vial containing a medicament for the purpose of filling the syringe.
Prior art syringe needles are usually covered with a simple cap that is capable only of protecting the needle. To fill the syringe with medicament, the cap is simply removed by hand and the needle fitted manually into the stopper of a vial for the purpose of filling the syringe with medicament. To fit the needle safely and conveniently into the bull's eye on the stopper on the top of a vial, many devices are already available in the prior art, including the syringe guide of the present inventor described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,240,047. However, these prior art devices are more complex and expensive to produce than the present device. They even require more dexterity from and incur more risk of injury to the user of the syringe. The user must uncover the needle and insert it into a passageway of some kind in order to guide the needle to the bull's eye, penetrate the stopper with the needle and fill the syringe. Although such guides were improvements over their predecessors, an exposed needle still requires considerable dexterity and visual acuity to find a passageway and penetrate the vial. Further reduction in the risk of injury or complexity is still desirable especially for the visually or physically impaired, inexperienced or distracted user of a syringe particularly since accidental puncture of the skin with a needle can result in transmittal of virus-infected blood. A need therefore exists for a more convenient, simple, economical and safe device for filling a syringe.